Bikini Lagoon, 25 July 1946, TEST BAKER. At 0835 by the Bikini calendar (24 July in New York), I witnessed the spectacular underwater Baker bomb explosion from a gun tub on the USS Fall River. It was not necessary to cover the eyes for this explosion. Take a listen to a live radio broadcast from Bikini on Baker Day (above) and watch the explosion in original color film (below).
(Side note: Decades later in 2010, the late Don Mozley, one of the reporters in the above radio broadcast, would record parts of the audio version of my book, Learning To Cope With Sight Loss. During a break in the recording session, Don said, “Bill, do you think your macular degeneration was caused by radiation at Bikini?” “Could be,” I said, “but no doctor wants to go there.”